On July 1st, my brother, sister-in-law, their three older girls, Ani, Cameron, and I went on a tour of the Dr. Mudd House. I grew up less than a mile down the road from it, but I’ve only toured it once or twice before and the kids had never been there.

Dr. Samuel Alexander Mudd (they called him Sam and his initials spell SAM, too) set John Wilkes Booth’s leg after Booth had shot President Lincoln. Dr. Mudd was sent to jail for his “part” in the conspiracy. Whether he knew anything about it beforehand is unknown (and unlikely), but he was a southern sympathizer (like most in southern Maryland) and that alone was enough to convict anyone in 1865.

In addition to growing up very near the house (and no doubt many of my ancestors knew the Mudds and I’m probably distantly related in many ways), Dr. Mudd is buried in the same graveyard at St. Mary’s Bryantown Catholic Church as my grandparents and other relatives and my great-grandparents’ outhouse is on display at the Mudd house/museum. The original Mudd outhouse went to pieces and was replaced with Pop-pop’s.

No pictures are allowed to be taken in the museum, so I only have this one of the outside of the house.